The GES Board and Planning Team are excited to announce that the program theme for September 2019 to June 2020 will be:

“Spirit in Action: Healing Ourselves, our Community, and our Earth”.

This theme will take us into our 16th year of Ecumenical programming on Gabriola. In July at our annual summer picnic, GES celebrated our 15th anniversary. Below is the Sounder article we submitted in celebration.

The Gabriola Ecumenical Society Celebrates 15 Years of Spirited Community Engagement

Have you ever bumped along in a Gertie bus in early December to sing carols to mobility- challenged Gabriolans? Shared in the fellowship of a Seder or Giving Thanks dinner at the Gabriola Golf Club? Witnessed Tibetan Buddhist Llama Losang Samten creating an exquisite mandala from coloured sand at Netloft? Contributed your voice at a community gathering at The Roxy to help create a Manifesto of Love by and for Gabriolans? Listened to the soul-nourishing poetry of ancient mystics Rumi and Hafeez set to music? Watched a film and participated in a discussion about the Baha’I faith? Dared to show up at a provocative discussion on the topic of Ageing and Sage-ing: A New Vision of Growing Older? Then your life, dear fellow Gabriolan, has been enriched by one of the many spiritual outreach activities
presented by the Gabriola Ecumenical Society.

The Gabriola Ecumenical Society (GES) is a not-for-profit, local grass-roots organization, with approximately 60 members. Its mission is to encourage and nurture spiritual questing, and it currently embraces the following definition of Ecumenism: Universal, whole, spiritually inclusive, open and collective. The programs invite exploration of traditional and contemporary ideas found in the wisdom of religious traditions, spiritual paths and the sciences.

GES was founded in 2004, to continue and expand the Ecumenical Community of St. Martin’s Anglican Church and Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church that had proved deeply meaningful to many Islanders from 1988 to 2004. Many founders of GES have remained active in the Society since its inception, nurturing its growth and providing continuity and stability, with many other islanders joining them to contribute their energy and enthusiasm over the past fifteen years.
GES offers yearly thematic programs that explore ways in which both traditional and contemporary paths of spiritual growth intersect with science, the environment, community issues, and social activism. The program theme for September 2019 to June 2020 will be “Spirit in Action: Healing Ourselves, our Community, and our Earth”.

GES is an evolving inclusive community that is respectful of diverse spiritual experiences and paths. It is open to new ways of seeing and being, and welcomes others who also seek new visions. As GES celebrates fifteen years of community contribution, it warmly invites your participation in upcoming programs and social events! Please visit the GES website at gabriolaecumenical.com for details.

Over the weekend of June 7, 2019,Lama Losang Samten spun his magic for the fourth year at his retreat at the Netloft on Gabriola. On Saturday he gifted us with a self healing process that was collectively felt and appreciated on a profound level. This process culminated with the Dorje Namjom Blessing which further enhanced our healing and sense of well being. The teacher, the participants, the location, the nutritious outdoor lunches, gave all of us a unique, heartfelt opportunity to rejoice. Thank you Losang, see you next year for the 21 Tara Mandala!

Always entertaining, Gary Badke appealed to the kid in all of us during his Mad Hatter Show at the Gabriola Arts Centre on May 26, 2019.

Gary wore many hats, and he changed them with each song he sang on his ukulele, mini banjo and autoharp. He took us on a musical journey that ranged from the Sunday School song, This Little Light Of Mine, to Puff, the Magic Dragon and a number of silly songs that engaged the audience in call and response. A small, but appreciative audience of children, teens and adults – sang, quacked, oinked, and barked in response to his stories. A few even jumped around and danced.

Gary ended with an invitation to close our eyes and dream about a favourite spot to sit, while he played a meditative tune on his flute.

This is a fun event that deserves a wider audience.

“Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invests.” Ludwig Van Beethoven

This Year’s Theme

The Spirit Flows Freely

About Us

The Mission of the Gabriola Ecumenical Society is to encourage and nurture spiritual questing. Our programs invite exploration of traditional and contemporary ideas found in the wisdom of religious traditions, spiritual paths and the sciences.

The Gabriola Ecumenical Society fosters inclusive community where all people explore challenges of our times with imagination, creativity, and with respect and compassion for all creation.